In democratic countries, governmental officials are chosen by the citizens in an election. Voting for candidates for public office in the United States is typically performed utilizing mechanical voting machines at predetermined polling places. When potential voters enter the predetermined polling place, voting personnel verify that each voter is properly registered in that voting district and that they have not already voted in that election. Thus, for a voter to cast his vote, he must go to the polling place at which he is registered, typically based on the voter's residence. If an individual is unable to go to the polling place at which he is registered, an absentee ballot can be utilized to allow the individual to cast his vote. There are numerous reasons a person may be unable to attend his registered polling place on an election day, including, for example, business or pleasure travel, attending school in a different location, or military service in a remote location. Typically, the user of an absentee ballot selects his choices on a ballot and returns the ballot to the election officials by mail.
While the use of absentee ballots allows all citizens to participate in the democratic process even if they are unable to attend their specific polling place on the day of the election, there are problems with the use of absentee ballots. A very important criteria of any voting system is the accuracy and security of the ballots to ensure that all ballots comply with applicable election laws. Any ballots that are not in compliance should not be counted, while all ballots that are in compliance should be counted. For example, for absentee ballots to be valid, the ballot must have been created, i.e., completed by the voter, in a timely manner and submitted for return to the election officials. For example, an absentee ballot that is created and/or mailed subsequent to the election day should not be counted.
The current method for ensuring timely completion and submission of absentee ballots relies either on a manually applied stamp indicating the date of completion and/or the United States Post Office (USPS) cancellation mark on the mail piece containing the absentee ballot indicating the date of submission. Neither of these methods, however, is completely verifiable or accurate, and tampering can easily be accomplished. The inability to verify and/or inaccuracy of these conventional methods typically results in numerous absentee ballots being declared invalid, and thus not counting. The adage “every vote counts” was made clear in the last presidential election, in which the voting was very close, and numerous absentee ballots, including ballots from overseas military personnel, were declared invalid due to questions about timely completion and submission. In some cases, it is possible that absentee ballots that were properly created and submitted can still be declared invalid if any questions arise, since as noted above, there is no method for ensuring the timely creation and submission of absentee ballots that is completely verifiable or accurate. If an election is very close, it is especially important that all properly created and submitted votes be counted, including any absentee ballots.
Thus, there exists a need for a method and system that can accurately verify the creation and submission of an absentee ballot.